Naji Marshall of Xavier celebrated during the Musketeers’ game against Providence. In a surprise upset, Xavier was knocked out of the tournament by Florida State this week. Related ArticleCreditCreditElsa/Getty Images

By The Learning Network

March 22, 2018

This week we enjoyed reading comments from hundreds of students across the United States — from New York and Florida to California and Ohio. We’d like to acknowledge longtime participants from YC CLIP, Locust Grove High School in Locust Grove, Ga., and Hoggard High School in Wilmington, N.C., for weighing in strongly this week.

And, we want to give a special shout out to Tucker G. Oakley from Wilmington, N.C., who consistently writes entertaining and heartfelt short stories and poems on our Picture Prompts. We look forward to reading them each week!

As always, thank you for offering your insightful opinions, sharing your personal experiences and composing creative stories on our many writing prompts. Keep up the great work, everyone!

Please note: All student comments have been lightly edited for length, but otherwise appear exactly as they were originally submitted.

_________

In light of recent events, it was no surprise to us that “Do You Think It Is Important for Teenagers to Participate in Political Activism?” was the most popular writing prompt this week. We received excellent comments from students all over the country who organized and participated in the national student walkouts on March 14, as well as those who chose to opt out. Here are their thoughts on the protest and teenagers’ roles in politics:

Kate Silver from Wilmington, N.C., shared her experience:

On Wednesday March 14th, thousands participated in Nationwide walkouts to protest gun violence and honor the 17 lives lost in the Parkland shooting. Among the participating schools was mine, Hoggard High School. At 10 am when the protests began, hundreds of students marched to the forum with their voices ready to be heard. I came prepared with my “Arms are for Hugging” t-shirt and “No more silence, end gun violence” written on my poster. 17 students were standing on a wooden bench and came forward one by one, passionately representing each of the 17 victims.

The experience was amazing. I felt as though anything was possible and that we could make a difference. Seeing so many students vying for change made me proud of my generation. I felt like my father, who years earlier, marched on Washington to protest the Vietnam War. As a teenager, adults look down on us. They see us as hormonal children that only care about themselves. But during the walkout, we showed them that we will not stay silent and afterwards, they were looking up to us.

Sydney Durner from Wilmington, N.C., also participated in the walkout, though for a different reason:

Teenagers are usually looked down upon in politics, like our opinion doesn’t matter, we don’t know enough about politics to have a say. It’s important for teenagers to be able to speak out for what they believe in. This enforce good political habits, speaking your mind, standing up for what you believe in, participating in voting, etc.

I participated in the walkout on Wednesday, March 14th. I don’t necessarily agree with what my school was preaching about. I went to honor the victims. The walkout turned into a ban guns rally. Guns aren’t the problem, it’s the ones behind the trigger that are the problem. In the article “National School Walkout: Thousands Protest Against Gun Violence Across the U.S.,” they mention a 16 year-old who stayed in class during the protest, saying that banning guns isn’t the issue and that the real issue is the people doing it.” That was his way of participating in political activism. He stayed because it’s what he believed in.

Teenagers should participate in political activism. It feels good to be a part of something bigger than you could imagine and trying to make a change in the world. In the article “Why Demonstrating is Good for Kids,” it mentions a study in the journal Child Development, teens and young adults who voted, volunteered, or engaged in activism went farther in school and had higher incomes than those who didn’t advocate for change. It is so important that we develop our voices at a young age. It only helps us in the long run.

Leah Schwagerl from Wilmington, N.C., was proud of her classmates:

Personally, I am proud of all of the adolescents that participated in the walkouts for gun violence or for memorializing the 17 victims of the Parkland shooting. Even if our efforts to promote change are denied by legislation, at least we were able to experience the unity that comes with standing up for what we believe in. I hope that the nation wide walkout sparked adults to see teenagers in a more respectable way. After all, just a week before the walkout I saw an upsetting post on social media that stated something along the lines of “How am I supposed to listen to teenagers talk about gun laws when earlier this year they were eating tide pods?”

To conclude, I can say with pride that after my positive experience from the national school walkout, I plan on being a lot more politically active in the years to come. Political activism allows teenagers, adults, and people in general to align their beliefs and engage in the world.

Collin from Lawrence was less impressed with his school’s demonstration:

I feel like at my school, Walkout was the wrong term. At my school there was a rally. Disappointed. That was my reaction.

Disappointed because instead of being a respectful memorial. It was a political charged anti gun rally.

Now, there is nothing wrong with expressing your own political beliefs but school is not the place to hold a political protest. I was under the impression there was going to be 17 minutes of silence but what I got was quite the opposite. People with megaphones, yelling and screaming, chanting. It was far from a memorial. Do I think young people should protest? Yes go right ahead but school is not the place. A large portion of people who went to the “rally” didn’t even know why they were there. Conflicted Ideas about guns swarmed around the place. “Ban all guns!” “Ban Assault Rifles” Some people didn’t even know what they stood for. The worse thing about it is, The school can practicality host an anti gun rally, but if a student walks into class wearing a shirt or a hat that portrays their conservative beliefs or lifestyle, they are asked to take it off. It reminds me of a court case we learned about in Civics. Tinker vs Des Moines. This court case ruled that students have the right to protest as long as they don’t disrupt the learning environment. Although the verdict stands true to this day, I don’t see the law being enforced in America’s High Schools.

Kalpana from New York, N.Y., was also confused about the message protesters were sending, but remained hopeful:

I’m not sure about the message my school was trying to send. I know that the students and teachers believe gun violence is bad, and I do too, but it confuses me why we were not doing 17 minutes of silence. I wish we had. I thought the walkout was supposed to be for students in Parkland, Florida, and we would be supporting them by walking out and doing 17 minutes of silence and reading their names. Instead, we did 20 minutes of shouting and rallying for gun control. The message we were sending out was not “Parkland we sympathize with you” but “NRA, we’re going to take you down!”

I do hope, still, that our rallies help convince Trump to make some gun control laws so there will be fewer incidents involving guns.

Though some students doubted the effectiveness of the walkouts, Sydney G. from New York thought they had the potential to make a difference:

I think that it was very important that us children, the future of our world went out and stood up for something that we believe in. It is very significant that as individuals at this age that we use our voices, because our opinions are very powerful and influential. I believe that we did make a difference just by going out among millions of others to support the people who have suffered and are still suffering and stand up for what we believe in. When I see photos of the other young adults going out and protesting, I feel proud that there is a group of people who are not afraid to share their true feelings to the nation and that there are people who are willing to protect and support each other no matter how frightening it is.

As did Cam from Maine, who hoped young people’s voices wouldn’t be silenced by adults:

I think that it is more important than ever for teens to participate in political debates and issues. Sadly, we are the generation that has grown up with mass shootings being a norm, and it needs to stop. I think that students taking a stand will make a difference because we are also the next generation of voters.

My school had a snow day on the day of the national walkout so we weren’t able to participate, but from what I saw it got plenty of news coverage and attention, which will help with raising awareness even more.

Personally, I also believe that teachers and administrators should allow students to have open, honest conversations about what they believe in without punishment. I also think that is wrong to not allow students to walkout and threaten them for standing up for what they believe in.

But Derek Han from San Jose, Calif., thought there were better ways for students to voice their concerns:

Many problems are being noticed around the country nowadays such as school shootings, and students may want to protest. Recently, there was a peaceful protest on March 14, where students across the nation walked outside of their classrooms in order to spread awareness about the issue of gun violence in schools. As a student, I didn’t take part in the protest as I believed that walking outside of my classroom for 17 minutes was not the best way to spread awareness about the issue and was not the most efficient way to address nationwide problems. I believe that the idea of teenagers trying to spread their opinions on problems is great, but I just think that there are better ways of accomplishing their goal. Spending class time in order to give respect to the murdered students may not have been the best idea. Letting others know about issues through social media and the internet is a great way to spread awareness and still save class time for learning. While the intentions of protesting students or teenagers may be good, I think that some teenagers may be more prone to act on their emotions, and I feel that teenagers may cause something similar to a riot if their opinions are not agreed upon, or if their actions are not recognized.

Many students were passionate about teenagers’ involvement in politics, like Hugo Veliz from Providence, R.I., who wrote:

Personally, if the teenagers are being active in political issues, we see different aspects and different views on problems being discussed today. Also, what would happen if the issues being discussed today are about the teenagers and the youth? How could they not be apart of that discussion if they are the discussion. For example, the tragic shootout that recently happened in Florida. Would those in danger be silent and not say what is on their mind? It would be unjust. The teenagers of today will be those making those influential decisions of tomorrow. Being quiet will not only danger today, it will also danger the future.

Nelly3D from YC CLIP agreed:

These days is very important to raise our voices to get changes. I think is important to teach the teenager to participate in political activism because some teenagers do not how good or bad is to fight to get some positive change. Nowadays, some of our teenagers do not know how to choose good decisions, because some parents do not allow that their children grow independently, this makes us create children unable to make their own decisions. Some of them are influence negatively of bad persons. However, some teenager are more mature than an adult. I think that we have to allow the teenagers participate in different way like political activism in this way in this way they get involved in positive things so that they grow up to be wise people with a lot of knowledge and they can take advantage of it in the future. If we want to see in the future good resolve for this country, we as parents have to educate our children. They are our future.

Robert Yates from Wilmington, N.C., argued that civic participation is one of the most important things citizens — young and old — can do for their country:

I believe that the willingness of teenagers to take a stand against the government is the most important factor in regards to the reversal of the socioeconomic damage previous generations have dealt to our country and planet. I participated in the walkout last week at my high school along with hundreds of others. Many people, though, opted out of the protest to sit in class and do nothing for seventeen minutes. These people have their reasons, the vast majority of which I disagree with, however the one excuse I heard from a few people that frustrated me the most was that they didn’t “waste their time” because “one person won’t make a difference”. This mindset is the antithesis of meaningful change, which is also shared by people such as those that abstain from exercising their right as an American citizen to vote. As the study referenced in the first article stated, both voting and participating in political activism have a high correlation with going far in school and higher incomes, most likely because proactivity lends itself to success more so than complacency. As far as school staff are concerned, I believe they should remain neutral on the topic and allow students to make their own decisions. I felt pressured to not participate last week because my teacher was clearly biased against the protesters. When school staff share their opinion, it can scare students into doing the opposite of what they believe in, which isn’t a good way to acclimate students to taking a stand.

_________

Image

“Pink Forest” (2018), by Patrick Jacobs at Pierogi’s booth, is one of several dioramas at the Armory Show, through Sunday at Piers 92/94.CreditRebecca Smeyne for The New York Times

As a painter I enjoy the instant gratification of the colours. However my favorite type of art is underwater “landscaping”; fish tank decorating. No this doesn’t mean Sponge Bob ornaments, but rather live plants and rocks. I currently have a 75 gal aquarium in which I am turning into a self sustainable tank. I currently have moss and anarchis as a foundation for the root mat. In this aquarium I have three freshwater angelfish, two bala sharks, and one chinese algae eater. This will be a hard project as both the angelfish and bala sharks eat live foods. Making this a difficult and demanding type of art as well. The instant gratification is still here, but you also get the rewards of delayed gratification. You also will watch the plants grow and take shape making this a very natural serene piece of art.

Grant Holland from Wilmington, N.C., prefers art that has a purpose:

I tend to favor artwork that shows meaning. Anyone can just paint, sculpt or take a picture of something, but what is hard is to show the audience your view and meaning through the art. I usually do not attend art museums, but instead I read the National Geographic magazine or watch the Discovery channel which contains videos and photography that is breathtaking. Discovery and National Geographic do not just run around taking pictures of anything. They take pictures of things that show meaning, like understanding the harsh life of someone who lives in Cuba which shows the reader the importance of freedom. Or watching an animal rescue program release an animal back into the wild that has recovered from injury which shows that humans can make a change on animal life. Art needs to have a meaning, to make a successful piece of artwork, give it life.

I like art that evolves and follows the times that we are living in. Graffiti art is one of my favorites, along with political art and graphic designs. Art is no longer just a painting of fruit, it is one of the most valuable tools used to express ideas. Something that conveys a reaction out of the viewer, that is provocative and eye opening is art in it’s most pure of form.

Sarah Dill from Maine appreciates the variety of interpretations different media invite:

I like to experience art because it kind of gives you a different perspective. There are so many different forms of art that you could have one topic and there could be so many different perspectives on it. I also like it because it’s cool to look at and you can interpret the meaning of the piece and what the artist was going for.

Shaunna Dancause from Massachusetts uses technology to get a museum experience at home:

With the internet making what seems to be everything so readily available, art can be viewed without needing to look at a book or go to a museum. For instance, I spend lots of time looking at art on Instagram. It is especially exciting because you can discover young and underappreciated artists that you wouldn’t have the joy of knowing about otherwise. That being said, it is a very different experience compared to visiting a museum. Being able to see art up close and personal is the best way to view it. My favorite type of art is definitely illustration because it almost always breaks the norms of realism. Even at seventeen, I enjoy looking at children’s picture books for the illustrations. It doesn’t matter whichever method you are using to look at the art, all that matters is that you’re able to appreciate it.

John Burgee from Wilmington, N.C., thinks our world would be boring without the gift of art:

My favorite piece of art was Kehinde Wiley’s “Margaret, Countess of Blessington.” I liked this painting for it’s uniqueness and realism which I find to be important in a successful work of art. Although I’ve only been to an art museum once or twice I can consider myself a good drawer and I can recognize a good drawing/painting when I see one.

_________

Image

At Gucci, Alessandro Michele presented a post-national vision of a vanished, mythic aristocracy — one that alluded to lost dynasties and empires. All clothing by Gucci, gucci.com.CreditPhotograph by Marton Perlaki. Styled by Malina Joseph Gilchrist

Emma Claire Lisk from Wilmington, N.C., thinks that, as with all art forms, fashion can make a statement about the world we live in:

My friends and I participated in a local fashion contest where the entire outfit was produced from books. But, one of my friend’s creations truly showed the mindset of a fashion designer. Towards her waist, one side had black spikes and the other had a soft feathered curve. She used these additions to display the tensions between people in society.

Current events have affected fashion since the 20th century. It has been shown through Martin Margiela in the ‘80s, the time of the infamous stock market crash called Black Monday, by pushing his designs to be “purposefully made to look poor — because the world suddenly was.”

Olivia Rotondo from Philadelphia sees fashion more as a personal choice:

Fashion is a way that people express themselves. People use outfits to represent who they are. I think that what people personally chose to wear does not reflect what is happening in the world. Some people would rather wear sweats and some people would rather wear jeans, it is just a preference between people.

Times change fast nowadays. We were one thing and it out of style in two weeks. I feel this fast paced world is a result of how we change as humans in our many ever-evolving ways. Clothes have always represented something for it’s wearers. In the late 1700’s the rich would envelope themselves in rare animals skins and elaborate colorful dyed fabrics. All this superfluous clothing would depict the wealth of these people. Today the wealth in clothing is still seen but not nearly as much. We see less of a gap because clothes are more attainable for those “ballin on a budget”.

Clothes today also have swayed away from belonging to one gender allowing this cross over to show how society’s acceptance has grown for those who don’t want to follow their gender stereotypes allow them to explore brighter colors, fun cuts, and patterns of clothes originally designated for a sole purpose. The closing gaps between men and women, rich and wealth, and black and white has allowed our communities to grow more unified while still allowing one to express themselves. Fashion overall has helped express the need for dismembering concepts that have configured a larger divide between different groups and allowed us to be seen as more equals with a nice pop of color to show everyone who we truly are.

_________

Image

CreditBrian Rea

Students wrote their own short stories and poems inspired by the Picture Prompt “Tape.”

Morgan from North Carolina created a back story for the image:

The children knew they needed to help their cat. The cat’s tail had been cut when she was after a red bird. The bird had decided to fight back this time. The children figured they should tape the cat’s tail, but literally got too wrapped up in their work to accomplish much the first time. They finally managed to do the job and were almost able to get away with it.

Mandi from North Carolina began her story this way:

Leah, Cassie, and George were sitting on their couch, bored, not being able to do anything because the storm had caused the power to go out, making the tv go out and their phones and laptops dead. Their mother was stuck in traffic where a car had crashed from going too fast on the road.

“I’m bored, what should we do?” George asked, laying on the floor looking up at the ceiling.

After a few minutes of silence, Cassie, the middle child, jumped up. “What if we played with Ms. Lake’s cats, there is one outside!”

“Yeah,” Leah, the oldest child answered. “we’d be doing the cat a favor and getting her out of the rain anyway.”

After getting the cat out of the rain, which George was left to do the job, losing a rock paper scissors fight. Cassie ran out of the bathroom with some bandages. “Let’s make a cat mummy!” she yelled, a beaming smile on her face.

The siblings soon had the bandages everywhere, more on themselves than the cat. They heard the door open. “What are you guys doing? Why is there a cat?” Their mother was shocked.

“We were bored, and the cat was outside, so we brought her in and tried to make her into a mummy.” George replied.

“if you were bored you could’ve played board games! I told you this over the phone!”

“Oh yeah.” the children said, looking at their feet.

Tucker G. Oakley from Wilmington, N.C., interpreted the tape as a metaphor in his poem:

It would have been amazing if Oprah had included herself in her list of Earth’s best “warriors.”

Hayley DeArmond said more could be done to make the film enjoyable:

There are a lot of problems with making film adaptations of popular books. Directors and writers are largely limited by things such as in the case as A Wrinkle in Time not including the book’s scientific theories. Since the story already has been heard, filmmakers are pressured to make it stay as true to the source material as possible, but that is what it is: source material. Ava DuVernay tries to add an artist touch with the casting, but I do not think it does enough to make the film enjoyable. To those who read the book, parts are missing; but the efforts to make the film like the book also made it confusing and not answer a lot of questions to those who did not read the book. An important thing to think about is the movie I, Robot is based on a series of short stories, and The Minority Report was based on short story. Many people do not realize how little of a book you can fit in a movie, but short stories give that message, characters, and setting to make something good. Speaking of The Minority Report it was directed by Steven Spielberg, not just one of the best directors, but directors of film adaptations. War Horse, Catch Me If You Can, The Color Purple, Jurassic Park, Schindler’s List, Jaws, the list keeps going; the most notable thing is Spielberg finds the importance of the story and expresses it his own way in film, he is not debating which chapters to include or characters to cut, he is creating a film

Here is what two students said for our Picture Prompt “March Madness”:

Rex Hardy from Wilmington, N.C., is a regular bracket participant:

I’ve done the March Madness Bracket Challenge with friends over the past couple of years and it never turns out the way I’ve predicted it. This year in particular, I had Virginia in the Final Four and North Carolina winning the whole shebang. After this past weekend, my bracket was destroyed by teams I’ve never heard of, terrible blowouts, and crazy buzzer beaters. It’s March Madness for a reason; which, is one thing I fail to understand year after year. I always predict the higher ranked team winning the majority of the games with only one or two upsets, yet I’m always proven wrong. The Cinderella story always finds a way to mess up what I had planned. This year is definitely up for grabs. Deep inside, I agree with Josh Nagel in that Duke has the best team and is the biggest threat to win it all; yet, I could definitely be wrong. If this year has proved anything to me it is that anybody can be beat on any given day. Virginia, being the favor to win it all by experts and millions of others, were quickly eliminated by a county team. This being said, I believe Texas A&M could win it all with their lineup of two 6’10” forwards, but they might not. The championship is up for grabs and the better team day in and day out is going to win. At this point, the world is wondering, who will it be?

Olivia Rotondo from Philadelphia follows the game closely:

This 2018 NCAA March Madness has been full of amazing wins and disappointing upsets. As many people pick Virginia or UNC to win it all, most brackets are now busted. I do not follow basketball closely, I know as much as the common person. So, my bracket was not going to get far anyways. I have a place in my heart for Nova. I can’t wait to see who will win this year!

SadiaD4 from YC CLIP named Stephen Hawking as a forward-thinking innovator:

The well-known scientist Stephen William Hawking, he was an English theoretical physicist, cosmologist and author and he is well known for his future prediction. One of his recent predictions about earth is, ‘Earth will glow red and become as hot as Venus. In July 2017, he told BBC that humanity is at a “tipping point” where global warming would become so bad that Earth become like Venus, with a temperature of 250 degrees Celsius, and raining sulfuric acid’. However, some people think that prediction is not going to happen. They think Venus is so close to the Sun but Earth is not that much close. Furthermore, for the increasing of global warming it could happen in the future.

Liubov4D from YC CLIP mentioned Elon Musk:

A name of the one person, who could be rightfully named as a person ahead of the present time, comes to my mind. This person’s name is Elon Musk. Inspired by Isaac Asimov’s “Foundation” he tries “to prolong civilization, minimize the probability of a dark age and reduce the length of a dark age if there is one.” The same way as sailors roamed the seas, discovering new continents, Musk plans to expand into the space and colonize Mars in 2022. Being bullied in childhood, being sneered as an adult, Elon Musk with the child passion in his soul, is the unique gifted personality, who definitely will influence the existence of all human species.

Time controls effectiveness of innovation, as seen in the article, which is the reason why the statement that “Ideas do not exist only on their own merits. Timing matters.”. The fact is that certain things are simply not needed for their time. A printer was not needed centuries before the adoption of education systems and this innovation would seem useless in the past while it is essential in modern schools.

_________

Image

A boy about to send a pile of bricks flying at the risk-enhanced playground at the Richmond Avenue Primary and Nursery School in Shoeburyness, England.CreditTom Jamieson for The New York Times

“Is Childhood Today Too Risk-Free?” was our second most popular prompt of the week. Students were mostly in agreement that childhood is too risk-free, although many said their own parents encouraged some kinds of risk, so didn’t count themselves in the overly protected category. Other students were aghast at the images of the playground in the article, and hoped for more of a natural and safer playground setting for children.

Alyssa from Georgia said childhood is sterilized today:

I think kids should learn about and experience risk at a young age, so they learn from it and won’t make that mistake again. I do think childhood is really sterilized today, parents should let their child have a little freedom to make mistakes and learn from them.

Haleigh from Georgia said children learn from their mistakes:

When I was a kid and played on the play ground it was safe to play on but we still managed to get hurt. Although we got hurt, we learned from it and never did the same thing again. I think this play ground is a little too risk taking for kids to play on but I also agree to making play ground a little risk just so the kids can learn from their mistakes. When you introduce risk at a young age kids learn at an early age to where they won’t do it again. I have been exposed to risk but I think I could’ve and should’ve been exposed to more; I would’ve learned more from my mistakes than I do because I haven’t been in those risky situations. With that being said I believe that this play ground is a good idea for young kids to be exposed to risks that they can learn from.

Sneezy from Kaiserslautern, Germany, said risk is good for children:

I feel that childhood today is too risk-free. The playgrounds that I grew up on were, what I would say, were the standard one; it had the slide, monkey bars, and these little spinny disk things comparable to merry-go-rounds. This playground didn’t compare at all to the “risk-enhanced’ ones. Some of the benefits that these risk-enhanced playgrounds have over traditional ones is that kids will be able to test their limits, how else will they know when to stop? These kids could be building a thin beam to walk across and fall out and hurt themselves. Yes, they did hurt themselves, but they learned that it did, and, hopefully at least, won’t do it again. And honestly, you can hurt yourself on any playground, risky or not.

I’m sick of kids being coddled and having everything sugar coated for them. When I was younger and we had money problems or family issues, I knew and was appreciative of the fact that my parents told me things straight and raw. I learned to keep myself busy with what we had. Now do I like video games and all that new, safe, indoors stuff? Of course I do. That doesn’t mean that playgrounds, sand boxes, mud pies, and wood carving weren’t what made me an early 2000s child, what made me who I am today. I didn’t get my first phone till I was 13 while I now see 6 year-olds with iPhones and tablets in their hands. You’re asking me if I think today’s children live a life too posh? Too risk free? Of course I do! They have everything bad in the world hid from them, they stay inside, they watch TV instead of going out with friends! Nothing is appreciated about the outdoors by the millennials of today, they’re too worried about their makeup, when the next iPhone is gonna come out, or how pretty they look in the mornings. I’m not at all suggesting children shouldn’t have any access to electronics or a somewhat safer environment, or that you should be telling them you’re gonna end up living in a car at the end of the month, but tell them when you don’t have enough money to buy them something, make sure they know how they look matters doesn’t matter and that they’ll always be gorgeous no matter what anyone else says.

Bella Cankurtaran from Wilmington, N.C., did not enjoy viewing the images of the playground in the article:

I’m pretty sure I shuddered while viewing the images of these British playgrounds. Recess is a time to let out all your energy in a colorful wonderland. The playgrounds these kids are exposed to look like prisons or some sort of war camp. These are children we are talking about! Their mind isn’t fully capable of understanding the risks put in front of them and actually learning from them. We develop that skill over time. Even today, I still make the same mistakes and get hurt each time. The article reported that a placard for Princess Diana Playground purposely provides risks “‘so that your child can develop an appreciation of risk in a controlled play environment rather than taking similar risks in an uncontrolled and unregulated wider world’”. No matter how much adult supervision there is, they can’t keep an eye on every child. Children get hurt on a regular playground so getting hurt on the British playgrounds will be a severely worse case. Nothing will stop kids from doing crazy things. They don’t know what to expect if they jump off a wooden crate or run their finger along the “sharp-edged tape dispenser”, and making that an option for them at this age can be fatal. Each day these children are exposed to danger that could possibly end their life and they can’t learn from that if they’re dead.

Mary Wells from Wilmington, N.C., said exposure is very important to growth:

When I was a child, I always looked forward to going outside to play with my friends on the playground. My favorite part was being able to swing like an animal across the monkey bars and see how far I could go in 30 seconds. Today, looking at this article, I find playgrounds in Europe are changing what we used to know as playgrounds into ones that have high risk factors. This is scary for younger children, who need security in their early years. Introducing risk factors not only shows them that it is okay to wander onto these dangerous sites, but also that it is encouraged. Children are at the stage where their minds are constantly changing and they hold on to information they receive. I believe that they should not be exposed to this environment at a young age because it teaches them that they should take high risks. In some situations, this is beneficial because they learn to take chances and not be afraid to try new things, but it also could be very dangerous for these little humans, who have not been in this world for very long. We take the time to show younger kids innocent videos and television, so why would we expose them to an environment that is not safe?

anon1010 from Cincinnati said a feeling of being independent from adults is important for children:

I think suburban areas are too sterilized. City kids still have opportunity for risk in their built environment and rural kids still have the unprotected woods for risky play. When I was in school, all the playground equipment was installed on asphalt — no rubber mats or mulch. Kids would jump off from the swings at the height of the swing or the merry-go-round at its fastest and land on pavement. There were occasional skinned knees, but no serious injuries. The bolder and more athletic would go on to more daring feats and everyone else learned their limits. The drawback of returning some risk is litigation. I grew up in the 70’s and I think I had the right amount of risk and freedom. It allowed me to separate from the adults in my life. Without risk during the young years, it seems that teens have been infantilized and are reluctant to try more adult activities (i.e. driving).